


On The Run (Reprise)

by khilari



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Fusion, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2015-11-15
Packaged: 2018-05-01 16:02:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5212052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/khilari/pseuds/khilari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peridot concludes that once the Cluster's dealt with and the Crystal Gems have no further use for her she's likely to wind up in a bubble. Having made up her mind to run before that happens she manages to convince Amethyst to go with her, but it's only a matter of time before they're discovered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On The Run (Reprise)

The drill is curiously unimpressive. It’s just about big enough for all of them and looks more or less like a tin can with a point on the end, to Amethyst’s eyes. She’s giving it a look over, carefully not touching it because if it breaks she is _definitely_ going to be able to tell Pearl she didn’t touch it, when Peridot sidles up to her.

‘Listen,’ she says, and then looks everywhere but at Amethyst in a way that has Amethyst wondering if they’re going to have this conversation by pre-recorded message. But, no, Peridot makes a frustrated sound and continues. ‘Tomorrow, this might actually work.’

‘We’re kinda screwed if it doesn’t,’ Amethyst says.

‘Mm. Yes, but — ‘ Peridot pauses again, looking around furtively. ‘If it does I will be leaving.’

‘Uh, you’re still our prisoner, homegirl,’ Amethyst drawls.

Peridot flinches, hands twisting together. ‘I have no desire to wind up in a bubble.’

‘We’re not gonna bubble you.’ Amethyst can’t really imagine it. Okay, it’s only a few weeks since they _had_ bubbled her, but she’d been an unknown quantity then. Now she’s the little green nerd who follows Amethyst or Steven around when she can, all sharp tongue and awkward determination.

‘Garnet will. Pearl will not care. They do not afford you the respect you deserve and you and Steven will not fight them over me. The logical course of action is to… to leave.’

‘To run away,’ says Amethyst. Peridot blushes but doesn’t deny it. ‘Why tell me now?’

‘I was… nrrgh… I was hoping you would come with me. I already know I cannot run from all of you, I don’t… I would sooner not try. Again. I considered asking Steven, but he is partially organic and requires rest and sustenance I could not reliably provide and which I don’t believe he could provide himself.’

‘Y’know, that’s way more thought than I put into it,’ Amethsyt murmurs.

‘Nyah?’ Peridot blinks at her with eyes that seem to swallow up her face when she’s not narrowing them at something.

Amethyst waves a hand, a forget-about-it gesture. Peridot’s not wrong, she’s still a Homeworld Gem to Garnet. Maybe that would matter more to Amethyst if Peridot wasn’t one of less than half a dozen Gems she’d ever met. Amethyst can’t go. The Crystal Gems need her. Except they don’t, except they’d kept her out of kindness or pity or guilt, when they’d found a defective little quartz five thousand years ago, and nothing’s changed since then. Except Peridot does need her and sees her as a leader, someone to look up to, and if she can’t fight Garnet to protect her she could at least not leave her out in the cold with _nothing_. ‘Sure. I’ll come.’

‘You _will?_ ’

Amethyst grins at Peridot’s surprise, sharp teeth sliding over her lips. ‘Hey, maybe I’m sick of Gems that don’t take me seriously.’

* * *

Steven slides down the tunnel, balancing his cheeseburger backpack carefully as he does. The last time he’d done this he’d been hand in hand with Peridot, the time before… he still feels wary, nervous that there might still be Gem mutants left, and unsure he’s right in the guess that led him here. Unsure that he’ll be welcome if he is, hadn’t they left to get away from him as much as anyone? It distracts him enough that the pile of metal at the bottom of the slope takes him by surprise and he skids into it, waving his arms as he tries to stop. He hits it with a sound like a pile of saucepans going over, which doesn’t quite conceal the sharp squeak from behind it.

‘Ow…’ Steven rubs at the several bruises sharp edges have left on him and tries to flail upright. ‘Peridot?’

But it’s Amethyst’s head that pokes over the pile, mouth stretched in a delighted cat-smile. ‘Steven! Hey, buddy!’

‘Amethyst!’ Steven scrambles forward and she sweeps him up in a hug, jumping easily across the piles with him in her arms until they come to the only flat area in the room — a circle around the pedestal. He can see Peridot now, balanced on what looks like the top of a drill. ‘Hey, Peridot!’

‘Steven.’ Peridot stands up and steps confidently over the heap, evidently familiar with everything there. ‘How did you find us?’

‘Well, I figured you’d go home.’ Steven rubs his head. ‘I mean, Amethyst’s home, not yours, I guess, but it’s probably the closest you can get to it… you always seemed more relaxed here.’

‘Hmmmmm.’ Peridot paces around him and then settles down with her back to the pedestal and narrows her eyes at him. ‘Are you alone?’

‘Yep!’ Steven smiles at her, but feels his smile slipping off his face. ‘I can go if you want. I guess you wanted to get away from all of us.’

Peridot reaches around the pedestal and pulls out her recorder. There’s the familiar squeal of rewinding and garbled phrases as she stops and starts it. Less clods, this time, more long technical specifications.

_’…has been making trips to nearby towns and returning with “food”. I regret not asking the Steven to accompany us since it seems she could have provided for him. However, he is probably happier in his own home. Peridot, facet five. End log.’_

‘Aww.’ Steven hugs Peridot, who makes a sound like an angry cat, and squirms like one too, before burrowing her face into his shoulder. ‘I missed you too.’ He sighs. ‘I can’t stay, though, Pearl would _really_ flip. She’s worried sick as it is, she’s been going through all the warp pads.’

‘But not this one,’ says Amethyst, lounging back against a pile with a too large grin. ‘Figures. She hates to think about this place.’

Steven looks at her anxiously. ‘She’s _really_ worried about you.’

‘She thinks I can’t handle myself? I’m a made soldier.’ Amethyst’s whip flicks out into the pile of trash, something snapping beneath it, and Steven just catches Peridot’s wince.

‘That —’ Steven lets Peridot shift away from him slightly, running a hand through his hair as he thinks. ‘That doesn’t matter! We’d worry about _Garnet_ if she just _vanished_. Can I at least tell them you’re okay?’

‘You’re not going to tell them where we are?’ Peridot asks.

Steven shakes his head. What good would that do? He’s pretty sure Amethyst will fight if anyone tries to drag her home before she’s ready, and Peridot will fight if they scare her. Even if she seems helpless, there’s a lot of junk in here, and he’s seen how quickly she can build a robot. ‘I want you to come home. But it’s up to you.’

‘Hey, Stee-man, it’s like you said. _This_ is my home. But you’re always welcome to visit.’ Amethyst grins at him, more genuine this time, and rolls over so she can reach to ruffle his hair.

‘I’ll program the security system to let you past,’ Peridot offers.

‘There’s a security system?’ Steven asks.

Peridot smiles the way she did when she’d just figured out smacking him hurt. ‘There will be.’

‘Oh.’ Steven looks around at the nest of metal. ‘Um. Pearl might come here on her own, so don’t make it shoot stuff, okay?’

‘Why not?’ asks Peridot.

‘Amethyst?’ Steven turns a pleading look on her.

‘Yeah, yeah. Sorry, Peri, he’s right. No shooting.’

Steven relaxes. ‘Oh, yeah, I brought stuff for you.’ He unzips his backpack and starts emptying it out. ‘Snacks for Amethyst — although I guess you’ve been getting your own — and tapes for Peridot and books in case either of you get bored.’

Amethyst grabs a bag of chaaaps and drops it into her mouth without opening it, while Peridot snatches a tape and looks at it solemnly for a moment before saying, ‘Thank you.’

Steven beams at them both. ‘You’re welcome.’ He starts to zip up the empty backpack. ‘I’d better be getting back though. I don’t want them to worry about me too. I’ll come back soon.’

He hugs them both goodbye, and Amethyst lifts him up over her head to carry him across the heaps to the entrance. ‘Oh, right,’ she says, as she puts him down at the bottom of the slope. ‘I guess you can tell P not to worry.’

Steven hugs her again. ‘Thanks, Amethyst.’

Then he turns to walk back up the slope.

* * *

‘Amethyst!’ It’s Pearl’s voice calling from outside, faint and echoing. So she did come here. Amethyst folds the sixth _No Home Boys_ book closed with her finger in it to keep her place, and listens. Pearl’s voice is getting fainter, she’s probably going to check Amethyst’s hole.

Peridot slips across the heaps muttering under her breath and trying to move silently, then half falls into the gap around the pedestal. She picks herself up with only a slightly increased level of mutter and puts her hand on the pedestal. It lights up but nothing Amethyst can see changes.

‘What’s up?’ she asks quietly, sitting up on the sheet of metal she’s been using as a couch.

‘Pearl is investigating the Kindergarten. It is only a matter of time before she arrives here. Initiating barrier protocol.’ There’s a fizzling sound from above them. ‘You should have allowed me to mount guns.’

‘You really wanna shoot P that bad?’

Peridot’s eyes close. ‘…I want to be safe.’

Amethyst drops her book and jumps to the central space, then places a hand on Peridot’s shoulder. She’s so thin. So’s Pearl, but Pearl’s tall, and she’s never needed _Amethyst_ to protect her. ‘Hey, it’ll be okay.’

‘Amethyst!’ This comes from just outside and, even though Peridot was monitoring Pearl, she’s the one who jumps, free hand clutching a fistful of Amethyst’s hair. ‘Amethyst, answer me, I can see the laser gate. I know you’re down there.’ There’s a long pause. Amethyst doesn’t answer. What’s she going to say, anyway? ‘Peridot?’ Pearl continues. ‘I assume you’re the one who set this up. I don’t know what you’re playing at but both of you come out of there this instant.’

‘No!’ Peridot’s voice is a squeaky growl. ‘I’m not coming out _just so you can bubble me_.’

Pearl sighs, a familiar I-am-just-barely-holding-on-to-my-patience sigh. ‘I am not going to bubble you.’

‘Why should I trust you. You threw away my arm and leg attachments and all my fingers and my _logs_.’

Amethyst winces. Looks like Steven didn’t tell her who actually threw her limb enhancers away.

Outside Pearl sighs again. ‘Are you _still_ upset about that?’

The pedestal flares green, the gate flares even brighter, bathing the metal near the slope in neon glow. Pearl yelps and Amethyst pulls away from Peridot to bound across the heaps and race up to the lattice of laser beams blocking the entrance. It looks normal now, but Pearl’s standing far enough back that, craning her neck to see through the laser beams, Amethyst can barely see her feet. It’s only when Pearl steps forward again she can see that she’s singed, but not badly hurt. Pearl looks down her nose at Amethyst, annoying enough when Amethyst isn’t literally beneath her.

‘If you won’t co-operate we’ll have to make our own way in. Steven’s shield —’

‘What makes you think Steven’s on your side?’

Pearl tilts her head down and drops to one knee, eyes suddenly full of hurt. ‘Amethyst, are we really on different sides?’

Amethyst kicks at the dirt. ‘I dunno.’

‘Come home so we can talk about this.’

Amethyst snorts. ‘So we can talk about what happens to the nerd _after_ you can get your hands on her?’

‘Are you really more loyal to a Homeworld Gem than to the Crystal Gems?’

‘She’s not “a Homeworld Gem”, she’s _Peridot!_ ’ Amethyst’s chest suddenly feels tight. ‘ _I_ might as well be a Homeworld Gem. I didn’t fight in your stupid war! I didn’t protect the Earth or save humanity or any of that stuff! You just found me and kept me and decided not to tell me anything in case I stopped listening to you once I knew what I was supposed to be. Even now you’re just — just treating me like a child or a pet or _property_. Why shouldn’t I live here if I want to?’

Pearl stands and steps backward. ‘Amethyst, you’re being unreasonable.’

‘Why? Because I’m not listening to you?’ Amethyst’s whip slams into the lasers over her head, electricity crackling into her and making her gasp with the shock, a shower of sparks burning against her face.

‘ _Amethyst_.’ Pearl starts forward and then stops when Amethyst drops the whip and rubs her hand, growling. ‘I’m going to fetch Garnet.’

Amethyst throws herself back down the slope, crashing through the metal at the bottom and then stomping over the heap. When she flings herself down in the clearing, Peridot jumps and lets go of the pedestal so she can press her back against it.

Amethyst snorts, but checks herself. ‘Not angry with you, little green.’

‘They’re coming back?’ Peridot asks.

‘Yeah.’ Amethyst tosses her head, flipping her hair back. ‘What was that just now?’

Peridot rubs her gem as if remembering a sensation there. ‘I… don’t know.’

* * *

There’s no sound except the fizz of the laser gate and the soft crunch of Amethyst pacing up and down the slope. No animals enter the Kindergarten, nothing grows there to sway in the wind, if sounds come from outside it will mean the Crystal Gems are back. Peridot curls herself tighter, pressing back against the pedestal, nose buried in her knees. She should have put guns up no matter what Amethyst said.

Voices echo from outside, too distant to make out, and Peridot whimpers.

Amethyst’s footsteps stop. ‘You okay over there?’

Peridot would have preferred an order. Something to make her focus. She suddenly misses Jasper. ‘No, I’m going to wind up in a _bubble_ if they don’t just _smash me to shards_ , so I’m _not okay._ ’

‘Hey, c’mon, get it —’ Amethyst’s footsteps start to clatter and Peridot shoots to her feet.

‘No, stay there!’ Her voice is shrill and forced. Amethyst is staring at her. ‘Just… stay there, they’re coming, you’re meant to be at the entrance, you’re meant to be guarding me.’

‘Jeez.’ Amethyst’s voice is soft, her expression hard to read. Or maybe Peridot is just bad at reading it, she never does understand what other Gems are thinking. ‘Okay, okay, your personal bodyguard is on duty.’ She doesn’t sound angry.

Peridot turns and presses her palm to the pedestal, the grainy images from underpowered cameras lighting up in her head. She feels better and more vulnerable all at once, half detached from her tiny body, thinking in code and feeling the broken hum of the Kindergarten’s power. Outside the Crystal Gems are walking towards the entrance, Pearl hanging on one of the permafusion’s arms while Steven trails behind them, glancing around anxiously. Peridot remembers the feeling from before when the gate flared, the fuzzy kick sensation in her gem, like firing her blaster. There’s no way to know whether she can do it again, but after the last couple of months she’s used to using abilities she didn’t know she had.

The three of them come to a halt in front of the laser gate, the permafusion shaking Pearl off and turning back to Steven where he’s lagging behind. ‘Steven. Your shield.’

Steven looks at her with wide, tearful eyes. ‘Can’t we just leave them alone? They’re not doing anything bad.’

Amethyst cackles from off screen. ‘Yeah, that’s right. We’re just hanging out having a par-tay.’

The fusion’s mouth purses. ‘You are abetting an enemy.’

‘She ain’t _my_ enemy.’

‘She’s not mine, either,’ Steven says, quickly, and tugs on the fusion’s sleeve. ‘Garnet, Peridot’s just scared, it won’t help if you scare her more.’

Peridot calls out, ‘I’m not scared,’ even though it’s ridiculous to think anyone could believe her.

‘Steven. Amethyst. This is your last chance to cooperate.’ The fusion’s voice is implacable, like the war machine she is. Her arms look strange, something is wrong with the cameras’ perspective, and Peridot shifts her vision from one to another trying to clear it up before realising the fusion’s arms really are expanding. Pearl is biting her lip. No one moves. ‘Fine.’

The fusion’s fingers dig down on either side of the opening to the control room, breaking through rock. Peridot forces the feeling from before, throws energy out into the Kindergarten network, and feels the sting of sparks on the skin around her gem. Green light dances on the fusion’s gauntlets and doesn’t even touch her, but Steven falls back with a yelp. Peridot snatches her hand away without thinking, as if she was the one burnt, and a moment later the sides of the entrance cave in, a welter of rubble hitting their stockpiles of metal. The sound is like thunder.

‘Amethyst?’ Peridot calls. Amethyst digs her way out of the rubble and emerges, shaking her head like she’s flicking off water. Peridot scrambles over to her on all fours. ‘Was Steven hurt?’

‘Kinda singed, I don’t think it was anything too bad.’ She looks guilty, though.

Above them Peridot can hear boulders being thrown aside. She shrinks into Amethyst’s side. They’re going to kill her for hurting Steven, they were going to kill her _anyway_ , she didn’t mean to… ‘We’re cornered.’

‘I’m not gonna be dragged home like a misbehaving child. Not this time.’ Amethyst spins around suddenly, grabbing both of Peridot’s hands and tugging her to her feet so they’re balanced face to face on metal and rock. ‘Fuse with me.’

‘Wh-what?’

Amethyst’s grinning at her, fierce and proud. ‘I can get past them. I’m fast. Think how fast and strong we’d be together.’

‘But I can’t.’

‘Sure you can.’ Amethyst’s swaying their joined hands gently, rhythmically. ‘Just trust me.’

Peridot stares at her, feeling something pound in her ears like music. She wants it. She wants to be strong, to be a warrior, instead of small and scared. She wants to live. If there’s got to be fighting there are worse things to be than a war machine. She nods.

They dance. Peridot’s clumsy, would probably be clumsy on ground that didn’t shift under her feet. Amethyst’s strong and agile enough to keep her upright. There’s a beat, though, to Amethyst’s movements and Peridot’s always been a fast learner. If she stumbles, she stumbles in time.

‘Doing great, Peri,’ Amethyst whispers and lets go of her hands to grab her around the waist, lift and spin her.

Peridot leans forward, wraps her arms around Amethyst’s neck and thinks, _Don’t leave me, don’t let me be alone and hunted again, don’t leave me._

As weak sunlight starts to filter in from above, Atlantisite stands up.

Existing is _good_. She shakes a mane of bright purple hair back from where it was falling over the two huge eyes that take up most of her face, where it isn’t taken up by a split mouth with fangs like a sabertooth. Her skin’s green, brighter even than Peridot’s, and her clothes are purple, bereft of either diamonds or stars.

Garnet slides down the slope before she’s finished her self-examination, stopping and staring at her in dismay. Atlantisite pouts, disappointed to find she’s only a little taller than Garnet, then realises she’s crouching on four limbs. She has two sets of arms, placed like Sardonyx’s, and she’s balancing easily on her lower hands and feet but could stand up if she needed to grapple. Her spine must be _super_ flexible. She stretches like a cat to test it, a ripple of movement from neck to butt, then bends the other way, rolling up like a pill bug and throwing herself into the quartz spin dash.

It works. It works _so well_ she’s almost going too fast to see Pearl’s shocked face as she speeds by, but she swears she hears Steven whisper, ‘Giant woman.’

She falls out of the dash behind a rock, laughing silently.

‘Did they _fuse?_ ’ Pearl sounds outraged, stricken.

‘We have to force them to separate,’ Garnet answers and, oh, how is _that_ fair? Peridot gets tied up for even suggesting Garnet unfuse, but as soon as _Atlantisite_ exists they’re ready to bash her on the head to have her in two pieces again. Jerks and clods.

They’re moving out to look for her, Pearl and Steven together, Garnet alone, what now? Oh, yeah, shapeshifting. She turns into a snake and slides along behind rocks too small to hide her otherwise. She’s never really used shapeshifting in battle, why hasn’t she used shapeshifting in battle? This is amazing, she’s rifling through all of Amethyst’s abilites, thousands of years of abilities, it’s so… cool.

She sneaks up on Garnet, slithering until she’s as close as she can get without showing a purple or green scale and then, just as she’s about to reveal herself, Garnet turns. Future vision ruins everything. Atlantisite bursts up into her natural form anyway, one hand drawing her whip. It crackles with green electricity now, too bad that won’t help against Garnet. Atlantisite’s got to be stronger than her though; Peridot’s weak but Amethyst’s a _quartz_ , there’s no _way_ they can’t match two little corundums.

Garnet catches the whip, letting it wrap around both her hands, and pulls. Atlantisite pulls back, lets it turn into a tug of war, rearing up so she can grip it with all four hands. Garnet’s gauntlets vanish, the whip comes loose in an instant, and Atlantisite goes over backwards. Garnet leaps forward, landing on Atlantisite’s belly with enough force to keep her down, then jumps again, gauntlets reappearing and expanding. She’s aiming for Atlantisite’s head, _Peridot’s gem_ , she wouldn’t… Atlantisite flings herself sideways and rolls onto her belly, scrambling limbs under her until she can gallop away on four limbs.

_She wouldn’t have, she was aiming for the side of our head._

_O-oh._

Atlantisite feels weird for a moment, components fizzling, separating, but they wrap around one another all the tighter, panic and protectiveness merging back into her.

A spear smacks into her shoulder seemingly out of nowhere and she hisses, yanking it out with one hand, rearing up onto her feet to get a better look around. There’s Pearl, behind a rock, already aiming the next spear. Atlantisite drops back onto four limbs, drawing her whip with one of her upper hands, and is already halfway to Pearl’s hiding place when she uses it to snatch the spear out of the air. The whip snaps at Pearl next, but she jumps over it, delicately twirling above it and landing with perfect poise on a rock.

‘Amethyst, you’ve got to unfuse,’ she says. ‘You’re letting Peridot influence you.’

Atlantisite turns into a parrot, fluttering in spirograph patterns above Pearl’s head. ‘What,’ she cackles. ‘You think Amethyst isn’t fed up of being ordered around by a jumped up _pearl_.’

‘I think that if Amethyst is angry with me it’s not because I’m a pearl,’ Pearl says quietly. ‘That’s coming from someone raised on Homeworld. Amethyst, we can talk, but not… like this.’

The parrot is suddenly Atlantisite, crouched on rocks behind Pearl like a sphinx. The whip snaps out and this time Pearl doesn’t manage to avoid it as it wraps her from head to toe. Savage satisfaction courses through Atlantisite. She’s _won_.

‘Pearl!’ Steven yells. He and Garnet are both running towards them.

‘You think.’ Atlantisite shakes the whip. ‘That any part of me. Wants to. Talk to. _You._ ’

Pearl’s body hits the ground and vanishes in a cloud. There’s a sickening crack.

_Oh crap, oh crap, P, what did we do?_

Part of Atlantisite is horrified at the result of her anger, part is viciously satisfied. Then the horror spreads and by the time she breaks apart both sides of her are feeling terrible.

* * *

Amethyst crouches down in front of Pearl. She’s retreated into her gem and one side of it is dented, cracks radiating out like a broken egg shell. Steven pushes past and scoops Pearl up, sobbing, then licks his fingers and starts to rub them over the cracks again and again like he’s cleaning off dirt. It’s not having any effect. When Garnet’s shadow falls over them Amethyst doesn’t dare look up, but Steven turns to her at once.

‘Garnet?’ he says tearfully, holding Pearl out.

‘We’ll take her to the fountain, Steven, she’ll be fine.’ Garnet pauses. ‘You two come as well,’ she adds, flatly. She picks Peridot up by the back of her jumpsuit and Peridot doesn’t even struggle, just hangs limply from Garnet’s hand.

‘Garnet, you don’t need to do that,’ Steven says, trotting alongside her as she heads for the warp pad. Amethyst trails them with her head down. She screws _everything_ up.

Garnet leads them through the vines and stops in sight of the fountain to drop Peridot on the ground. ‘Stay there,’ she says. Peridot curls up, gazing blankly at the huge statue of Rose. Steven pauses to pat her shoulder before following Garnet the rest of the way to the fountain.

Amethyst isn’t sure what Garnet intended her to do, but she sits down near Peridot. ‘Peri?’

Peridot hunches up further. ‘I… apologise. I brought views you do not share into Atlantisite and caused you to hurt your “friend”.’ She says the word friend like it’s unfamiliar, like she’s not even sure it’s a real word. Peridot’s painfully young, Amethyst had felt that as part of Atlantisite. She’s used to thinking of herself as young, but Peridot had been awestruck by the idea of a thousand years.

‘Peri, that’s not the first time I’ve hurt Pearl as part of a fusion,’ she says, glancing sideways through her hair.

‘Nyuh? Who… with?’

‘Garnet.’ Amethyst rocks forward and hugs her knees. ‘It wasn’t as bad, but it pretty much could’ve been. That was your first time fusing, wasn’t it?’ A nod, confirmation Amethyst doesn’t really need. ‘Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. Not with both of us angry and…’ She waves her hands.

‘You were helping me.’ Peridot’s fidgetting her fingers together.

‘Yeah, maybe, but I’m dumb and reckless. This whole thing…. running away, fighting, fusing like that… I should have talked to Garnet and Pearl. It’s not like I could really protect you, I was just showing off. I’m not a proper Crystal Gem, I’m not a proper quartz, I was enjoying being important to someone but,’ she sniffs, ‘I’m a _really_ bad person to look up to.’

Peridot stares ahead of her, she’s shaking. ‘What am I meant to do now?’

‘I dunno.’ Amethyst closes her eyes and rests her head on her arms. ‘I’m sorry.’

* * *

Steven finishes bathing Pearl and puts her gently on the edge of the fountain so he can splash water over his burnt arms and legs. Garnet’s watching Peridot and Amethyst, both curled up near each other looking miserable and guilty. Steven glances at them and then looks sadly up at the statue of his mother. It would be okay if she was here. _She_ wouldn’t be angry with Peridot for being scared, or with Amethyst for trying to help, and Garnet would listen to _her_. The thought surprises him, he’s not accustomed to thinking of Garnet as wrong.

Garnet picks up Pearl, cupping her tenderly in one hand, and starts back towards the waiting Gems. Peridot sees her coming and stands up, glancing back and forth nervously. Steven scrambles out of the fountain and runs to get ahead of Garnet, moving bodily between her and Peridot. ‘Wait, what are you going to do with Peridot?’

Garnet purses her lips. ‘She’s a divisive influence.’

‘She doesn’t have to be. This whole thing happened because she was scared.’ Steven glances back over his shoulder. ‘No, because me and Amethyst were scared. Because you keep treating someone we care about like a problem and we don’t know what’s going to happen. We’re Crystal Gems too and that ought to matter.’

Garnet goes down on one knee to be closer to his level, as if she’s going to explain something to him that he needs to understand. ‘Steven, the conflict between Homeworld and the Crystal Gems —’

‘Was a really long time ago!’ Steven interrupts. ‘You didn’t even want to tell me about it, but you still expect me to care about it enough to _not_ care about Peridot. Well, I care about her, she’s my friend, and if you just promise you’re not going to hurt her she won’t have any reason to run or fight us or anything.’

‘Go, Steven.’ Amethyst still sounds subdued, but she comes to stand beside him.

Garnet stares at them without saying anything and Steven wonders if she’s looking into the future behind her shades. ‘Agreed,’ she says. ‘Peridot, if you make no further attempts to contact Homeworld you won’t be harmed.’

Peridot lifts her head. ‘Just like that?’

‘Steven made some good points.’ With that Garnet walks past them, through the vines and back towards the warp pad. ‘Don’t give me reason to regret this.’

‘Garnet makes up her mind fast,’ Steven says when she’s out of sight.

Peridot’s eyes narrow as she glances in the direction Garnet went. ‘She still hates me.’

Steven hugs her. ‘You’re safe, we can work on everything else.’ When she hugs him back he smiles and reaches for Amethyst, but Amethyst hesitates.

Peridot glares at the ground, but holds out a hand to Amethyst. ‘If I have to partake in this human ritual, so do you.’

Amethyst hugs them both so hard they’re lifted off the ground.


End file.
